Determining My Target Audience

To determine the target audience for my film, I have examined the UK Film Council (now British Film Institute) data regarding demographics and genre preferences of UK film audiences. The data does not include any direct statistics for the silent or mystery genres, but does include statistics for film noir, which is similar to both genres. This shows that neither the silent nor the mystery genre is largely recognised in the UK film market. This would mean that creating a film of these genres would be extremely unique. The given demographics data shows that the film noir genre is most popular among males over 35 and those of the AB social class.
For these reasons, I shall aim my short film at an audience of males of age 35 and above. This will most likely increase the amount of people from this TA who will go and see the film. I will also target those in their late teens etc. in order to introduce the silent mystery genre to a younger audience. Also, if there are some members of the audience who only like mystery films, this will introduce them to silent films and vice versa. 

Those targeted by my short film will mainly be of the ABC1 social class, as the typical viewers for silent films are older and more sophisticated, while the typical viewers of mystery films like an intellectual challenge and prefer to be in the position of the main protagonist.

The overall success of a film heavily depends on the reception it gets by its designated target audience, meaning that demographics and psychographics are essential and often reflect the films box office total. I.e. if you aim a film at an inappropriate target audience or the film is not well received by its target audience, then it is more than likely that the eventual box office total will be low. 

The box office totals for ‘The Artist’ (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011), a silent film, and ‘Sherlock Holmes’ (Guy Ritchie, 2009), an action/mystery film, are below:

‘The Artist’ 

UK/US Box Office Total: £36,924,194.01/$57,635,592.60

UK Box Office: £9, 028, 092/$14,089,220.60

US Box Office: $43,546,372/£27,899,102.01

‘Sherlock Holmes’ 

UK/US Box Office Total: £157,084,791.03/$245,762,313.16

UK Box Office: £25,711,734/$40,228,115.16 

US Box Office: $205,534,198/£131,373,057.03


(Box Office Data From: http://www.screenrush.co.uk/ )